Mary+Ellen+Legge

Mary Ellen Legge, a 24-year-old department store clerk, died June 1, 1938, from a criminal abortion.

Otto Lucy, an Oklahoma City psychologist and teacher, was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty in her death. He had charged Mary Ellen $75 for the fatal abortion.

A practical nurse, Ella Hartin, admitted to helping Lucy perform the abortion. She said that Lucy had frequently brought his abortion patients to her home.

While he was out on bail pending disposition of this case, he performed the fatal abortion on Goldie Crow. He had perpetrated another abortion, on a stenographer who lived, between his arrest and his first trial in the Mary Ellen Legge case.

Though he was not a licensed physician, he is listed in the phone book as "Dr. Otto C. Lucy."

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1930s]. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion]

Sources:
 * "Ex-Dean Accused of Murder in Abortion," //Miami (OK) Daily News-Record//, Jan. 25, 1940
 * "Lucy Murder Trial Set for April 7," // The Oklahoman //, Mar. 29, 1941
 * "Prosecutor is Set to Open Otto Lucy Death Trial Monday," // The Oklahoman //, Apr. 5, 1941
 * "Lucy Guildy of Manslaughter; Jury Recommends 25 Years," // The Oklahoman //, Apr. 9, 1941
 * "Lucy Drops Appeal Plan, Starts to Prison", // The Oklahoman //, Apr. 14, 1941

Photo courtesy of Gateway to Oklahoma History



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